Ethiopia - Right in time

Last week a Swedish healthcare delegation, headed by the Swedish Minister for Health and Social Affairs, visited Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. A delegation trip to Ethiopia had been in the planning for a long time, but the timing has never been better than now.

A large market with a growing middle class, strong economic growth, good historical relations to Sweden and government focusing on improving healthcare were the reasons behind the decision. The Noble Peace prize being awarded to Prime minister Abiy Ahmed just a few weeks before our delegation just made it all feel even more right in time.

A group of 37 delegates led by our Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Lena Hallengren joined this triple helix delegation. This included representatives from three government agencies; the Public Health Agency, the Medical Products Agency and the National Board of Health and Welfare, and one academic institution, Karolinska Institutet.  Along came seven companies; Arjo, AstraZeneca, Atlas Copco Medical Gas, Elekta, Getinge, Human Bridge and Mimer Medical. The delegation was co-organized by Swecare, the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Abeba, Business Sweden in Nairobi, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We had a few intense and efficient days. The first day was planned to set the scene of the Ethiopian health care sector starting with a study visit to Black Lion Hospital, the country´s oldest referral hospital with large expansion plans. After a joint introductory meeting, the delegation was divided in three groups to visit the Pediatric emergency, Department of Pediatrics and Child Health and Oncology/Cancer center.  After the visit to the hospital, which is just across the street from the Swedish Embassy, we had a working lunch in the garden of the ambassador´s residence with the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority. Their Director General Heran Gerba explained the role of their agency as an entry point for all companies in the sector to enter the market and that their new proclamation from February 2019 is now being put in place to enable a smoother registration for companies. She also mentioned that a digital registration is rolled out to smooth things further. The lunch continued with one-to-one questions from the companies to her colleagues while she sat down with the Director General of our Medical Products Agency and discuss possible collaboration.

The last meeting of the day was at Ministry of Health with the Minister of Health Dr. Amir Aman to listen in on his plans and thoughts about the status of the Ethiopian health system challenges and opportunities. We got a nice surprise at 3pm when we were all asked outside and had a small exercise/stretch together with ministry staff. This is part of the daily routine at the Ministry. After the break we got presentations from several department heads on their responsibilities and agenda for the future.

The day ended with a reception at the ambassador´s residence with a mixed crowd of international organizations, health care professionals and international NGO´s.  

The second day´s main event was our conference Sweden - Ethiopia Health Care Conference: Public and Private Cooperation for a Sustainable Health System. The event was held at Sheraton Hotel and gathered more than 90 attendants. The conference took off with welcoming remarks by Mr. Torbjörn Pettersson, Ambassador of Sweden to Ethiopia, followed by Dr. Munir Kassa  from the Ministry of Health (stepping in for Minister Dr. Amir that was called in to another meeting last minute) and  the Swedish Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Ms. Lena Hallengren. This set the scene of the conference with the context of the Swedish and Ethiopian health care and global challenges that we have to combat together.

A keynote speech was then held by Director General Ebba Abate from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute explaining the four major strategic missions of the EPHI; public health emergency management, putting research and knowledge into practice, capacity building and developing the national laboratory system.

Dr. Johan Carlson, Director General, Public Health Agency of Sweden was the next speaker and talked among other things about anti-microbial resistance, the disease burden in Sweden and how it differs with level of education. Dr. Carlson concluded with some words about the Sustainable Development Goals, and especially goal no. 3 on Good health for all at all ages.

After coffee break and an VIP tour of the company expo for the two ministerial representatives, the morning continued with interesting presentations from the participating Swedish government agencies and their Ethiopian counterparts on the health system topics of Access to safe and effective pharmaceuticals & medical products, Access to good health and care for all; the importance of data and guidelines and Access to knowledge and know how, each followed by a panel discussion by the participating companies and Ethiopian speakers.

The Conference ended with a delicious networking lunch, during which a lot of interesting discussions regarding the Swedish solutions presented, and the challenges in Sweden and Ethiopia took place.

After lunch, the business delegation went on to MCM General Hospital, which collaborates with the Nordics for their burns treatment unit. We met among others the general manager Dr. Young Dae Kwon and Dr. Morten Kildal from Akademiska hospital in Uppsala, who visits regularly, and learnt about their inspiring model for collaboration with regional hospitals to improve burns care in Ethiopia.

As the last thing on Tuesday evening we had a quick summary meeting with Minister Lena Hallengren and then went to the cultural restaurant at Capital hotel were the delegation had a nice Ethiopian buffet and was entertained by Ethiopian music and dance – some of us even got to try dancing.

Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply agency received us on the third day and showed us their warehouse where we had a Q&A session with Mr. Tesfalem, EPSA's Deputy Director General for Outbound Logistics

Across the street from EPSA is St Paul's Hospital that was our second meeting of the day. The visit started with a presentation on the hospital and their expansion plans, followed by study visits to different departments. 

Lunch was combined with a wrap-up session to hear what the participants thought of the program, and how they will follow up the leads they have gotten during the delegation.

The very last meeting was at Ethio-Tebib Hospital, a private facility with general and specialist departments. Among the specialties provided are Internal Medicine, Surgery, Gyn-ob, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Radiology, Dialysis unit, and Emergency & Critical Care Medicine. 

From the wrap-up meeting we know that the participants got valuable insights and many contacts for possible collaboration and business to follow up on. The next step for Swecare will be a follow-up meeting in Stockholm at the end of January/begining of February next year to check what progress has been made and understand how we can further assist in deepening the collaboration with Ethiopia.

Health Tech Scale-Ups in Germany

Operationalising the Innovation Partnership between Sweden and Germany

Swecare had the pleasure of supporting Socialdepartementet and eHälsomyndigheten with one of the workshops which took place during the Roundtable on the German-Swedish Partnership for Innovation in eHealth on Monday. Being able to use our vast and diverse network within the life-science ecosystem in Sweden to make sure that relevant interests are represented during such high-level discussions is one of our defining assets.

Ministers Lena Hallengren and Jens Spahn opened the Roundtable by stressing the need for cooperation between our two countries in order to maintain international competitiveness during these digital times. Both ministries were present in force leading the discussions of 54 participants during the course of the 4-hr afternoon meeting. The palpable commitment of all the public sector representatives, ranging from government officials, academic experts, to trade associations, during our the dialogue underline the scope of our engagement.

In the workshop on Digital Health Start Ups and Businesses, led by the charismatic Josefina Nungesser, Director of the Digital Hub Initiative at Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), we discussed the new regulation passed by Germany allowing doctors to prescribe digital apps with health benefits which can then be reimbursed by the national health insurance system. From the Swedish side Swecare, IT&Telekomföretagen, HealthTech Nordic along with German counterparts from Bitkom, The Federal Ministry of Health, The Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, Charité, decided to organize a start up exchange during 2020. Targeting perhaps 10 new innovative companies ready to scale from each country, we will create a 2-day program, one day in each of our countries, where we will engage with key stakeholders in the scale-up journey:

1. Science and innovation parks
2. Test beds in or near university hospitals
3. Regulators
4. Potential investors

Get in touch if you are one of these new digital companies! Initiatives from the other groups will be communicated once we have the final report from the Roundtable.

At dinner after a long afternoon of discussions - graciously hosted by the The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)

Photo Credit: Embassy of Sweden in Berlin

During our short trip to Berlin, Swecare, at the initiation of Business Sweden, also gave its larger member companies an opportunity to present their success stories and challenges in the German market to Minister Lena Hallengren, the Swedish Ambassador to Germany, and State Secretary Maja Fjaestad. Digital solutions for nursing homes and patient registries came up during these discussions and we hope to include these multi-nationals as we operationalise our partnership. The established companies have access to considerable resources - expertise, financing, network - that they are ready to share as we work towards common goals.

Sweden India Year of Health 2019

Photo credit: AIIMS Jodhpur

As a kick-off to the Sweden India Year of Health 2019, Swecare was privileged to organize H.E. Lena Hallengren's first trip in her new role as Swedish Minister for Health and Social Affairs. It is a testament to the incredible commitment by both the Indian and Swedish Health Ministries to our ten-year collaboration that we managed to pack in such a high-level, well-rounded delegation in the short timespan between the conclusion of the lengthy Swedish election cycle and the start of the Indian one.

The program for the 35-strong delegation began with an internal round table for all life science companies on Friday, 22 May, morning. Given that the increased number of Swedish new companies entering the Indian market, this was an opportunity for established ones to share their experiences and for the agencies to learn about market-entry challenges. The session began with a presentation by Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) Directors Dr. Mavalankar and Dr. Bhalla on the Indian health care sector, the impact of recent reforms, and their work.

Minister Hallengren presided over the India-Sweden Business Leaders' Round Table (ISBLRT) in a parallel session in the morning.

Photo credit: Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)

The two groups then got together to hold a Health Dialogue: Conference of the Sustainable Development Goals – Impact Driven Partnerships Beyond Traditional Silos in the afternoon. The session was opened by Health Secretary Preeti Sudan along with Professor Bhargava, Director-General at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The lively discussions covered topics ranging from procurement ("the Taj Mahal would never have been built with today's tender practices" - Dr. Advani) to innovation ("we cannot innovate for innovation's sake" - Vlachos). EMPE Diagnostics and AstraZeneca launched new initiatives in India with the blessing from both Ministries of Health.

Photo credit: Business Sweden India

Photo credit: Swecare

All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jodhpur were our gracious hosts over a weekend which included open and earnest discussions over collaboration opportunities, a beautiful dinner at the foot of Jodhpur's fort, and a visit to health centers for some of the group.

Topics discussed:

• Public health & infection control
• Innovation
• Skills, Competency development & Research
• HMIS, Data, Analytics & e-Health

We have follow-up meetings already planned and will keep you updated as we narrow our scope in order to focus on where Sweden can generate the most impact.

The trip ended with a bilateral meeting between Ministers Hallengren and Nadda on Monday morning. We hope to have an incoming visit from the Indian Minister later this year.

Photo credit: Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi

Thank you to all our partners in this endeavour: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi, Business Sweden India, Swedish Chamber of Commerce in India.

Special mention: Mumbai Consulate, Sweden India Business Council, Tasting India.

Our Indian counterparts: Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, AIIMS Jodhpur, CDSCO, ICMR, Indian Embassy in Sweden, Public Health Foundation of India.

A new initiative - Welcome Gathering for New Members

On January 21st we launched a new initiative – a networking event for newly entered Swecare members. The interest for this event was very positive and we welcomed 15 member companies this time!

The outline of the meeting was to connect members together, get to know them, their business better and invite them to get a better understanding of Swecare’s core business and how we can support them in their internationalization process.

During the gathering, the members had a chance to hear testimonials and tips from representatives of the board and members who have been with us for a while and how they use the platform Swecare offers.

Niclas Jacobson, Deputy Director, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs presented the governments work on export promotion, Per Nylund, Vice President Global Strategic Sales, Elekta and Christian Kinch, CEO, Bactiguard talked about how they utilize Swecare and official export promotion work from their company perspective.

Patrik Sundström, Head of eHealth, Swedish Association for Local Authorities and Regions (SKL) and their view on partnerships as key to drive sustainable improvement, innovation and growth and Pavan Asalapuram, CEO, EMPE Diagnostics was also invited to talk but due to unforeseen circumstances they could not make it this time. We look forward to listen to them another time!

Thereafter, we opened the floor for a round of introductions of the invited members: ADDI Medical, Advokatbyrån Gulliksson, Biomedex, Byon8 AB, Centigo AB, Docly Healthcare AB, EMPE Diagnostics AB, Fillauer Europe AB, Gnosco AB, Kontigo Care, MediRätt, Minnovation International AB, Sirona Health Solutions, Stiftelsen Choice and the Swedish Standards Institute.



It was interesting to hear about their mission and their needs in their internationalization.

Swecare has a broad network where academia, public sector (including the government), and private sector jointly address health care challenges. We strongly believe that through close collaboration in tackling common challenges from multiple angles increases our international competitiveness and strengthens Swedish health care.

As one of our members said yesterday; “Swecare is what you make of it, take advantage!” He is absolutely correct - Swecare is a useful and cost-effective tool to create export possibilities for Swedish health care. We act as a door opener and create platforms through which you can access your counterparts across the globe. We look forward to acting as a key in unlocking new business opportunities for you. It was lovely to see so many of them joined together!

Swecares julmingel 2018

Efter årets sista styrelsemöte och premiär för vår nya seminarieserie runt temat "personcentrerad vård", var det i onsdags dags för Swecares årliga julmingel. Det har blivit lite av en tradition att varje år få bjuda in er alla till en härlig eftermiddag med skön julmusik, varm glögg, knapriga pepparkakor och sprudlande mingel. Tack till alla som kom och minglade denna decemberkväll, vi var många från företag, sjukvård och organisationer och myndigheter som syntes mingla tillsammans.

Årets gästtalare var ambassadören för global hälsa, Anders Nordström som berättade om Sveriges aktiva arbete på detta område, genomförandet av Agenda 2030 och som generöst delade med sig av sin djupa & breda erfarenhet.

"Det globala hälsomålet handlar inte längre enbart om överlevnad utan om att människor ska kunna leva långa och friska liv", säger Anders Nordström.

Anders Lönnberg, Generalkommissarie, tog vid och berättade om sitt uppdrag att planera och genomföra Sveriges deltagande vid världsutställningen Expo 2020 i Dubai.

På tal om det avslöjades i torsdags det vinnande förslaget i arkitekttävlingen för Sveriges deltagande i världsutställningen Expo 2020. Vinnaren blev Alessandro Ripellino arkitekter. Vinnarförslaget har mottot The Forest och har i sin design av den svenska paviljongen tagit hänsyn till bland annat design, hållbart material och funktionalitet. Läs mer om Sveriges deltagande och tema via länkarna i slutet av vår blogg.

Swecares ordförande Vivianne Macdisi och vd Maria Helling framförde också sina julhälsningar och tackade för ett bra jubileumsår. Mycket aktiviteter och många resor till Indien, USA, Kina, Holland, Frankrike, Turkiet, Tyskland, Rwanda och Uganda, m flera har genomförts. Ett aktivt jubileumsår med många nya kontaktytor som lett till en medlemstillströmning och i år hälsar vi nästan 18 nya medlemsföretag välkomna.

Bland gästerna syntes medlemsföretag, partners, och andra organisationer. Regeringskansliet var välrepresenterat med ss Agneta Karlsson och ss Maja Fjaestad, Socialdepartementet och UD. Efter ett par timmar med glögg, julmust och utbyte av tankar och idéer kring det internationella arbetet inom hälsa, sjukvård, Life Science, personcentrerad vård, osv. drog sig deltagarna så småningom hemåt i den tillsynes stjärnklara och kyliga decemberkvällen.

Än en gång vill vi tacka alla i vårt nätverk och framförallt medlemmarna för gott samarbete. Förutsättningarna för ett lyckat 2019 känns mycket goda och nu ger vi järnet de sista två veckorna innan jul med ett par sista möten, förberedelser inför Arab Health 2019, besök hos ett par medlemmar och lite julstädning veckan före jul.

Varma julhälsningar,
Vännerna på Swecare

Om världsutställningen i Dubai 2020. Här.

Om Sveriges deltagande och tema. Här.

Om arkitekt-tävlingen och uppdraget. Här.

Svenska paviljongen i Dubai blir en skog

 #expo2020sweden @expo2020dubai #expo2020dubai @TeamSwedenSE @AnnLinde @mikaeldamberg

Högnivå studiebesök från Ukraina lockar svenska bolag

Svenska ambassaden i Kiev anordnar tillsammans med Swecare ett intensivt program i Uppsala, Stockholm, Södertälje och Linköping med målet att lära sig mer om svensk sjukvårdsledning, få insikter om vilka tekniska lösningar som företagen erbjuder och hur dessa appliceras i den svenska vården. Speciellt fokus för delegationen är cancer-vård, även om  intresset även är stort för infrastruktur investeringar då landet genomgår en sjukvårdsreform.

Välkomstpresentationen hölls av statssekreterare Agneta Karlsson på Socialdepartementet där hon bl.a. förtydligade regeringens stöd i reformarbetet och att Sverige är den tionde största investeraren i Ukraina. Detta uppskattades utav viceminister Olexandr Linchevsky, Ministry of Health of Ukraine som presenterade om de stora framsteg landet gjort de senaste åren inom sjukvårdsområdet både gällande ny infrastruktur, nya differentierade betalningsmodeller enligt pay-for-service model, samt det breda folkliga stöd man lyckats samla för att genomföra fritt-vårdval s.k. ”electronic declaration”. I detta ingår val av familjeläkare, nationella e-register, patientjournaler, och att så småningom bli helt harmoniserat och följa europeiska kvalitetsstandarder och semantik.  För att lyckas med detta ambitiösa mål har man stort behov av att öppna upp marknaden för utländska bolag som kan bidra med sina produkter, tjänster och kompetens.

Därefter fick viceministern och den stora delegationen (bestående av bl.a. direktörer och chefer från regionala sjukvårdsgivare, cancerkliniker och svenska life science bolag i Ukraina) ta del av en informativ presentation av Mona Heurgren och Anna Mattsson på Socialstyrelsen om deras uppgift, nationella register och hur de arbetar med data, guidelines och screening-program.

Därefter blev det en presentation av Andriy Beznosenko, chefsläkare på National Institute of Cancer of Ukraine om förekomsten av cancer och den nationella cancerstrategin. Där han betonade att även om landet gjort stora framsteg de senaste åren återstår stora investeringar inom cancervården för att närma sig kapaciteteten och kvaliteten för motsvarande länder. Ett tema som även Alla Sheptitska på Elekta och Tim Thurn, VD på C-Rad återkom till och gjorde bl.a. jämförelser med Polen.

Men innan företagspresentationerna var det svensk fika och Ylva Wide från eHälsomyndigheten som berättade om deras uppdrag med e-recept, men även om patientjournaler och delning av hälsodata diskuterades och deltagarna var imponerade av vision eHälsa2025 som lyftes som ett viktigt policyverktyg.

 Sammantaget är det uppenbart att det finns ett stort intresse för svensk kompetens och att en nybyggaranda finns i Ukraina när system måste byggas upp från grunden.

Great foundation for knowledge exchange between Sweden and Germany

After the visit to the Ministry of Employment we hosted the delegation of socialdemocratic members of the landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state diet of this German federal state. The delegation was headed by Thomas Krüger, and assisted by the embassy of Germany in Stockholm.

Henrik Moberg from the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs gave the delegation an overview of the Swedish healthcare system and government initiatives such as Vision2025.

After which Dr. Jokilaakso presented how Swecare works with internationalization efforts and partnerships, including some recent data on identified strongholds where eHealth-solutions are high-lighted as such. Thus, both Nordic and Swedish initiatives such as eHealth-by-Sweden was shown to the delegates. These discussions including e-prescriptions, HER, and virtual doctors-visits fit really well with the scope of the bilateral innovation partnership that was signed by PM Stefan Löfven and Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was obvious to all attending that while our healthcare systems are very different there is increased urgency to learn from each other since we have complementary strengths needed for a sustainable healthcare system. This is an excellent basis for deepened talks and further collaboration.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Allt fler svenskar på Arab Health 2018

Så var det än en gång dags för Mellanösterns stora hälso- och sjukvårdsevent, Arab Health Exhibition & Congress i Dubai. På plats finns denna gång över 50 svenska företag representerade, ett tiotal i egna paviljonger och utöver detta finns det även två svenska samlingspaviljonger där man tillsammans visar upp sina produkter och tjänster samt knyter kontakter med beslutsfattare inom hälso-och sjukvård för hela regionen.

Det var också premiär för Swecares ordförande Vivianne Macdisi som tillsammans med enhetschef Niclas Jacobson, Socialdepartementet och vår VD, Maria Helling spenderade ett par dagar på mässan.

Arab Health är en av de största hälso- och sjukvårdsmässorna i världen och är den största inom hälso- och sjukvård i MENA-regionen, (Mellanöstern/Nordafrika). Den pågår i 3 dagar och förra året var evenemanget slutsålt månader i förväg och välkomnade ca 96.925 besökare från 159 länder. Nytt för i år är att man satsar på att öppna upp för "Personal Healthcare Technology Zone", en ny plattform vid Arab Health 2018 som gör det möjligt för personalproducenter och tjänsteleverantörer att presentera ny teknik, produkter och tjänster för tusentals beslutsfattare både regionalt och internationellt.

Måndagen ägnades åt invigningsceremonier i Innovation Pavillion by Sweden, en paviljong arrangerad av Swecare-medlemmen Global Pharma Consulting, samt den officiella svenska paviljongen som hålls ihop av Business Sweden. Svenska ambassadören i Qatar, Ewa Polano samt tidigare handelsministern Ewa Björling, idag styrelseordförande i SPBI är också med under hela utställningen.

Paviljongerna invigdes av vår Ambassadör i Abu Dhabi, Henrik Landerholm tillsammans med bl a Niclas Jacobson, Socialdepartementet och Swecares ordförande, Vivianne Macdisi som gjorde succé genom att tala arabiska i sitt invigningstal!

På invigningen av Innovation pavillion by Sweden, arrangerad av Swecare-medlemmen Global Pharma Consulting, valde man att knyta band och på den officiella svenska paviljongen som hålls ihop av Business Sweden valde man att klippa band.

Paula Hassoon från Global Pharma knyter band vid invigningen 

En rundtur i paviljongerna bjöd på många kända Swecare medlemmar, bl a Camanio Care där VD Catharina Borgenstierna visade upp sin ätrobot.

Andra medlemmar som Life Clean, Bactiguard och Elekta var också på plats.







Intresset för regionen verkar öka bland de svenska företagen och de som finns på plats vittnar om att Sverige och svensk sjukvård står högt i kurs hos emiratierna!